Information continues to slowly trickle in related to yesterday‘s US airstrike against a Syrian military convoy in thee nation’s south, with Syrian officials accusing the US of having committed a “massacre” and launching strikes which killed several soldiers. Exact figures were not released.
The US claimed the attack targeted a convoy which had gotten within 55 km of a military base at which US special forces were conducting training exercises. The exact location of the strike is as yet not public knowledge, though the Pentagon insisted that it meant the killings were “defensive in nature.”
The area around the Syria-Iraq-Jordan border, which by all indications is where the strike occurred, is split between Syrian military forces and US-backed rebels. Both are fighting ISIS in the area primarily, though the US presented the Syrian convoy is inherently a threat to American troops.
Russia was critical of the attack, declaring it “unacceptable” and a violation of Syrian territorial sovereignty. Since the US troops didn’t have permission to have a base in Syria in the first place, nor to launch airstrikes inside Syria, that seems a fair point.
The US insists that the attack was not indicative of a change in Syria policy, though it is only the second strike they’ve launched against Syrian military targets throughout the entire war. The previous attack targeted a Syrian air base, with a flurry of cruise missiles.
Third attack. You forgot that Isis air force (US) in September 2016 deliberately killed 100 Syrian servicemen and soldiers in Deir Ezzor, an attack coordinated and prepared with isis according to Russian and Syrian sigint and intelligence.
The Deir Ezzor attack was a Coalition op with Australian and Dutch fighters under Obama; the last two strikes appear to have been purely American on Trump’s approval.
A minor difference, but it means the U.S. is becoming independently involved deeper in the Syrian mire with or without allied support.
It also indicates there are sufficient U.S. troops on the ground staking out turf to warrant overt air cover, and confirms Trump in office is likely making little difference towards lasting peace.
However, the Trump strikes so far are also tactical-lite in nature; they aren’t critically impairing the Syrian war effort whereas the Deir Ezzor strike lost Mt. Thardar and almost Deir Ezzor itself. They appear more related to appeasing warmongers at home, safely picking off low-hanging fruit at the fringes, as the U.S. tries to salvage a presence in post-civil war Syria.
Great article by Rania Khalek today at Antiwar which points out the sold out position of Democracy Now or basically Amy Goodman, who has been a regular sponsor of Syrian rebel propaganda and obfuscation of the Syrian civil war. This reveals Goodman and others who are beholden to their donors, wealthy sold out NGO’s.like Amnesty International, Oxfam and other corporate fronts.
I love it that a foreign power invades another country or enters a foreign country without their permission and says that they are defending themselves, LOL. Also, remember that the Pentagon can now disseminate legally propaganda to the American people so there version about what happened likely did not happen according to there version of events.
Four U.S. warplanes came in at tree top level to avoid radar detection, destroyed without warning a tank and bulldozer killing a dozen troops,
then when fired upon by an anti-aircraft weapon were forced to fly higher
and when a sensor indicated that they had been detected by radar, they
quickly disappeared.